


You Make My Dawn

by chokemehosh, highflyerwings



Category: K-pop, SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Chwe Hansol | Vernon-centric, Gen, M/M, Magical Elements, OT13 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 08:05:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17484323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chokemehosh/pseuds/chokemehosh, https://archiveofourown.org/users/highflyerwings/pseuds/highflyerwings
Summary: He was thankful to Seungcheol for saving him. Still remembers, vividly, the day his leader claimed him, and slipped the small, silver ring onto his pinky...





	You Make My Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> This work was inspired by and created for @WinterEclipse_  
> It's basically her fault this has happened so go yell at her on twitter if you got issues. 
> 
> @ChokeMeHosh and I just thought we should torture everyone else along with her while we were at it.
> 
> Enjoy the gift, babe!

Vernon awoke as the sun was setting. Just like he did every night. He opened his eyes as the last remains of a golden beam spilled through the crack of his curtains. He watched as it crept across the floor, slowly fading to red, and then dying in the shadows as night quietly followed him into consciousness.

He rolled over onto his back and sighed.  _Another day_ , he thought.  

There was the sound of a crash above him, followed by the slamming of a door and a muffled yell as someone stomped down the hallway.  

_Wonwoo must be awake_.  

Vernon groaned and dragged himself up, swinging his legs over the side of his bed to connect with the cold, hard wood of the floor. He was starting to feel listless again; numbness settling in his limbs like it did every ten years or so. A haziness in his head, turning his thoughts muddy and muffled. He scrubbed his hands over his face, trying to awaken something, _anything_. To bring whatever was left of his dead senses back to life.  

Dead. _Undead_.  

He sighed again and stood up. He shuffled to the bedroom door and his hand hesitated at the knob for a moment before he tugged it open, only to stumble backwards, startled, as Hoshi and Dino ran giggling passed him. Bubbles of laughter echoing through the hall as they chased each other down the stairs and out the front door.

“Yah!” He hollered after them, knowing they could still hear him even though they were already halfway down the street. “Can we maybe _not_ do this, this fucking early please?” He pleaded with the house at large, along with any of the occupants who might be listening. He heard faint cackling down the road in response, and he sighed. _Another day_ , he echoed, trudging his way down the stairs.

“You’ve lived in this house how long?” DK scoffed, taking a drink of his coffee afterwards. Vernon groaned and rubbed his temples as he reached the bottom of the steps. He didn’t sleep well, granted, it’s not like he _needed_ to sleep at all but he had nothing else to do. Picking a cup from the dish rack on the counter, he opened the fridge to grab the almost empty carton of orange juice, pouring the sad amount into his glass.

_Looks like Jeonghan hyung is gonna have to run into town here soon_ , Vernon thought -- staring at the _now_ empty carton. Jeonghan was usually the one, out of the thirteen men who occupied the manor, that did the grocery shopping. Kind of like a mom, in a sense. Although, everyone had their own role assigned to them in the house to keep everything in order.

Vernon leaned against the counter and slowly sipped his juice. Much like sleep, it wasn’t that he _had_ to drink, to eat actual human food, but it was the semblance of normality that mattered. It was something they all did -- or most of them -- to retain a sense of balance. And it worked. And food still tasted good, though the dripping juices of a rare steak would never quite compare to the gush of human blood over his tongue.

He tried to remember the last meal he had. The last body he’d drained with his brothers. It had been days -- _had it been longer than a week?_ He was unnerved by the realization that he couldn’t remember...  

He was startled from his thoughts by Wonwoo storming into the kitchen. The smell of petrichor following in his wake sent shivers up Vernon’s spine.  

He knew each of their scents intimately. Even after all this time he wasn’t sure if scenting was one of the gifts he was given when he turned, or if it was simply the heightened senses of what he was, but he found it useful, even comforting most of the time.

It was times like this, however, that it had his nerves on edge. The subtle change in Wonwoo’s scent, to something ominous, something that matched the thunder in his voice, made Vernon tense against the kitchen counter at his back.

“What’s Mingyu up to this morning?” The way DK calmly lifted the coffee cup to his lips did little to belie the laugh in his voice.

“Don’t fucking start with me, Seokmin,” Wonwoo levelled a glare at DK and received a withering glance in return.

“Do we have a problem here?” They all turned at the sound of Seungcheol’s voice coming from the doorway behind Wonwoo. He came out of the shadows like a ghost, and Vernon would have laughed at the cliche if it wasn’t so effective.

Seungcheol, the leader of their coven, was the oldest among them, and the most threatening by far. With at least a century on even the elders of the group, he radiated chaos. Rooms darkened when he entered them, and echoed with his energy; a heavy hand that served to keep his coven in line, as well as protect them from those who sought to tear them apart.

“Wonwoo and his lover are fighting again,” DK answered with a smirk while staring Wonwoo down. He knew better than to get snappy with _any_ of their small coven, then again, his nickname isn’t Aries for nothing.

There was a moment of silence until the culprit himself walked down the stairs, his aura filling the room with even more tension, and a little uneasiness. Vernon looked between the two men and a gentle scoff left his mouth. There was always something going on with the duo, it’s a surprise to everyone that they haven’t killed each other yet.

Wonwoo’s eyes shot to Vernon at the sound: a warning. Though Wonwoo’s bark was louder than his bite, the hair on the back of Vernon’s neck still stood on end.

No one moved for a second. Wonwoo held Vernon’s gaze, while Mingyu looked on over his shoulder, his gaze just as steely. The air was thick with the tension of their earlier spat, and whatever was clouding the air of the kitchen’s current occupants. Vernon didn’t know which to be more annoyed with, but Seungkwan made the decision for him as he glided into the room, his voice soft, and sweet.

“Alright, alright. Put your fangs away,” he cut through the icy tension in the room. Wonwoo looked at him, scandalized and betrayed, and stormed out of the room, Mingyu close on his tail.

“So,” Seungkwan crooned, his eyes sparkling as he watched the retreating backs of the couple in question, “What did I miss?” He floated over to DK, looping a graceful arm around his neck and pressing a kiss to his temple.

“Nothing, dearest,” DK patted his arm, a soft smile on his lips as he toyed with the coffee cup in front of him.

Vernon noted the soft scent of jasmine that arrived with Seungkwan. It filled the room and wrapped around him like a warm blanket, and the tension immediately left Vernon’s body.  

“Oh,” Seungkwan said, sounding a little disappointed. After a beat his smile returned and he leaned in close to DK. “Take me shopping,” he simpered in his ear. “Buy me something pretty.”

DK hummed, and pressed a soft kiss to Seungkwan’s cheek. “As you wish,” he finished the last of his coffee and stood up from the table; a graceful, lithe movement that had him turning on his heel to put a possessive hand at the small of Seungkwan’s back and lead him out of the kitchen.

Vernon watched them go with envy. Envy at the way they complimented one another. Envy at the way Seungkwan could diffuse any situation, and the lighthearted way he glided out of the room with DK at his back.

He lost track of how long he’d been standing there; how long he’d been watching the long-empty doorway the couple had disappeared through, when he heard Seungcheol’s voice break through the silence.  

“You alright?” he asked.

Vernon tried not to look startled. “Yeah!” he said it a little too quickly. “Yeah...I’m good.”  

And he meant it, for what it was worth. He just didn’t think Seungcheol believed him, judging by the look on his leader’s face; the flash of something that ghosted across his features briefly before the storm returned to his eyes.

Seungcheol made a soft noise in response, noncommittal, but it spoke volumes, “Ok.” He started to walk away but turned back, “Hey,” he said, “I think Jun has something planned for tonight. Make sure you’re home later, yeah?”  

_The order was clear: Be There._

Vernon nodded, and watched his leader’s back as he walked out of the room and back to the shadows he came from.

The kitchen was empty now. Vernon could hear the clock on the wall ticking away, could feel it luling him into a complacency that made his skin crawl with every passing second. The room was quiet; the manor felt quiet, _empty_ , though he knew better. With thirteen of them, there was always bound to be one person lingering in the rooms of their estate somewhere, and Vernon tended to be comforted by that thought. He never really liked being alone.  

He listened to the hum of the fridge, until the silence around it became unbearable and he had to move.  

He pushed off of the kitchen counter and placed his empty glass in the sink. His feet carried him out of the room, and down the hall, casually peeking in each doorway as he passed. He was about to give up, beginning to think maybe he really _was_ home alone, when he glanced into the study and saw Jeonghan lounging on the loveseat by the window, a book open in his lap.  

Vernon smiled.

He made his way over to the couch, not giving Jeonghan a moment to look up from the pages he was engrossed in, and curled himself up on the cushions next to him. There may not have been room for two full-grown men on that sofa, but it wasn’t the first time Jeonghan found himself in this same position with one of them tucked close to his side. He stretched out his legs, lifted his arm, and let Vernon shuffle down to lay his head on his chest, their legs tangling together comfortable and familiar below them.

Vernon sighed and closed his eyes.  

He sometimes missed being able to hear the steady beating of a heart, pumping oxygen through living veins beneath warm skin, when he curled up next to one of his brothers like this. It was a phantom memory, and one he wasn’t sure he actually remembered or just thought he _should_ , but it was fleeting and quickly dissipated in the steady rise and fall of Jeonghan’s chest beneath his head. _Breathing_. Unnecessary and necessary all at once, and Vernon marveled at the contradiction of what he was; what they all were.  

He nuzzled closer, listened to Jeonghan turn the pages for a while as the fireplace crackled softly next to them. After a few minutes Vernon’s voice broke the comfortable silence.

“We’re out of orange juice,” he murmured.

That was the last thing he remembered before Jeonghan’s calming aura left him drifting pleasantly on the scent of lilac and pine, and lulled him into a pointless sleep.

 

\----

 

When he awoke, Jeonghan was no longer there. In fact he couldn’t sense anyone in the house, which meant everyone had left to get things done before Jun’s big surprise.

Sighing, Vernon got up from the sofa, walking out of the room and towards the stairs that led to the roof.

It really wasn’t much of a secret, but the others knew that the home’s roof was Vernon’s space. He would go up there to think, or if he simply needed the silence.

Now, he needed to think; to reflect. His turning, and the consequences it brought with it, left him conflicted. Even if it was thousands of years ago, his mixed emotions left him reeling on the worst days, and on the best days, with a mild itch at the base of his skull. Something he couldn’t quite shake no matter how hard he tried.

Wonwoo called him a cliche -- _“The sad vampire who can’t bear the thought of what he is, oh boo hoo.”_ \-- Said he was an “embarrassment to their kind.” Heated words in a heated moment, and Vernon knew to take them with a grain of salt. He knew Wonwoo loved him, just as much as Vernon loved him, but sometimes Vernon couldn’t shake the thought that maybe his brother was right. _Maybe I_ am _overreacting..._

He was thankful to Seungcheol for saving him. Still remembers, vividly, the day his leader claimed him, and slipped the small, silver ring onto his pinky...

_“Don’t lose this,” Seungcheol said through a gentle kiss against Vernon’s knuckles. Placing another, lingering, kiss on the ring for good measure, he let Vernon’s hand go and smiled at his new companion._

_Vernon lifted his hand, turning it over to gaze at the new accessory._

_“Why? What is it?” Vernon asked, dazed. Everything was so bright, so startlingly clear through his new eyes, and Seungcheol’s kiss left his skin tingling with an urgency that Vernon couldn’t quite place in that moment, but would come to understand soon enough._

_“Protection,” was Seungcheol’s simple response._

And that was that. The day he turned, the moment his life became multitudes and never again simply his own, he was grateful for what he had been given; would have been dead that day and long since without it. But he had developed an unfortunate bout of inner turmoil since then, along with the want of feeling... _something_ again.

Not that he _can’t_ feel emotion, because he can. He feels -- _oh he feels so, so much_ \-- there’s just a part of him that only feels _empty_ now.

Leaning back on his elbows, Vernon watched as the dark blue sky started to get a bit lighter on the horizon. He would have to go get his ring here soon. He closed his eyes and felt the lazy breeze against his face, making him sigh in a moment of what he fooled himself into thinking was contentment.

Being a vampire isn’t really what actors on tv shows or in movies portray it to be. Because at least they get to go back to being a human at the end of the day, while _real_ vampires are forced to outlive their loved ones, watch them take their last breath with a face full of bags and wrinkles, while you don’t look a day over twenty.

Vernon’s been there too many times not to feel some ache in his dead heart at the thought. He watched his mother, his father, and siblings all die. Each time he cried, and each time Seungcheol was there to give him the support he needed. After that, he kind of grew cold in a way, towards humans; towards any other undead being except his adopted family.

It must have been a couple of hours until Vernon snapped himself out of his series of thoughts, because the horizon was now a mix of purples, and pinks; a whisper of orange and red against the lightening of the blue he saw earlier.

_Sunrise_ , he thought.

He made his way back to the stairs, and it wasn’t until he was halfway down that he sensed the other twelve again. It was also then that he realized he had forgotten Jun’s surprise. _He was late._ He bounded down the rest of the stairs and towards the direction he could sense his brothers.

He knew exactly where they would be.

Vernon could smell her before he even entered the room. He was the last to arrive. Everyone’s heads turned as he stepped through the door; twelve pairs of eyes met his in varying stages of hunger, and lust, as he was hit with the overwhelming scent -- unforgettably and unmistakably -- _human_.

He slowly made his way to the edge of their circle, coming to a stop at Joshua’s side. They caught each other’s eye for a moment before Vernon looked away to gaze around the room at the rest of his brothers.

The room. _Their sanctuary_. With its rich mahogany floors, and high, heavy beams of the vaulted ceiling above their heads; exquisite, crimson drapes hung over the windows on either side of the massive fireplace blazing at the far end of the room. It was a room surely intended by the original architect to be utilized as a library, or a study, but was now reserved for one purpose only.

Dino and Hoshi were back from their daily romp around the neighborhood, their countenances far different from when Vernon ran into them when he arose that evening. Instead of the bubbling laughter that greeted him earlier, what he now saw were two predators. Their gazes hard, and deadly as they looked at the girl in front of them.

“Nice of you to join us, Hansol,” Seungcheol said. There was no heat behind his words. Seungcheol smiled at him, knowingly, and Vernon felt something shift.

He tore his gaze away from his leader to continue looking around the room. If he were being honest, this might be Vernon’s favorite part of this little ritual they shared: watching everyone else’s reactions. He loved watching how they changed, how they slipped into what DK jokingly referred to as their “Feeding Frenzy.”

He looked over at Wonwoo and Mingyu, and the sight shot a pang of arousal through him.  

The couple, per usual, had made up, or put their earlier argument on hold, and were now draped possessively around each other. Mingyu was pressed solidly against Wonwoo’s back, his exposed fangs at Wonwoo’s jaw, as they both looked on heatedly at the gift presented before them.

The display wasn’t unusual; turning this ritual -- something sacred -- into foreplay. And whether they all admitted to it or not, it was a sight to behold when Wonwoo gasped softly, and Mingyu’s arm tightened a little more firmly around his waist, possessive fingers digging into sharp hip bones.

DK and Seungkwan were in a similar state. Seungkwan leaned elegantly against DK’s side, with DK’s arm slung loosely around his waist. Such a drastically different sight from the other couple, yet equally as possessive, and just as alluring. Vernon again found himself envious.

His eyes continued to roam around the room, stopping just long enough on each of the other members to get a good look at their dark eyes, and open mouths, tonguing sensually over sharp fangs as they waited for the signal to attack; that it was their turn.

When his eyes finally landed on Jun standing behind the young woman, his hand trailing gently down her arm, Jun smiled at him.  

_Oh_.

“Dinner’s ready,” Jun said. And Vernon felt the energy in the room intensify, a pounding in his ears from the hum of blood coursing through her veins, and what was surely the tendrils of Seungcheol’s glamour wrapping tenderly around each of them, reining them in.  

Jun and the girl were silhouetted by the fire at their backs, the glow of it throwing them into relief against the orange blaze, while their shadows danced hypnotically across the floor.   

“Who’s first?” Woozi asked. Ever the consummate mediator; always asking the most important questions. Vernon loved him for that.  

“I don’t know,” Seungcheol said thoughtfully. They all waited, breathlessly. “Who do you think should take the first sip tonight, Minghao?” His eyes landed on the man at his side, questioning.  

Minghao was the youngest among them, the last turned, and the one whose opinion Seungcheol sought on all matters before making his final decision. Even on something as seemingly trivial as who fills their plate first at dinner time.  

Vernon couldn’t tell exactly what kind of sway the younger had over their leader, just how powerful his opinion really was in the elder’s eyes, but it was an interesting dynamic nonetheless. Being the most recently turned meant Minghao retained more of his humanity than the others, and Vernon guessed that might have something to do with it. Seungcheol was wild, and sometimes reckless, fighting desperately against the desire to give himself over completely to what he was, but the need to remain grounded ultimately won and it seemed Minghao was who kept him tethered.  

There was a time when Seungcheol’s recklessness bordered on dangerous, for himself, and for the coven, so Vernon supposed he had Minghao to thank for keeping their little family at peace.

Vernon’s eyes widened as Minghao’s landed on him, startling him from his thoughts.

“I think... _Vernon_ should go first,” he said simply.

 Seungcheol smiled, pleased. “Good choice,” he said.  

And with a small, encouraging nod from his leader, Vernon took a deep breath through his nose. The first breath he’d taken since he was hit by the woman’s scent when he walked through the door, and it was enough to have him swaying on his feet. The scents of each of his brothers, heightened by their arousal, washed over him and he nearly stumbled as he took his first step towards Jun.  

He felt drunk. The pounding in his ears only got worse the closer he got, and he tried not to think too hard about the predatory smile on Jun’s face as he approached, deciding instead to keep his eyes on the woman’s in front of him. Her gaze guarded, closed-off and hard, struggling against her primitive fight or flight instincts to keep herself holding firm in her place.  

Vernon looked at her curiously.

He finally reached her -- ignoring the murmurs of “Hurry it up,” and “Fucking get to it already,” behind him -- he took another deep breath and was almost knocked off his feet.

He couldn’t quite believe it.  _It can’t be..._  

He couldn’t smell Jun on her at all.

He leaned in slowly and pressed his nose against her pulse point, where the swell of her jaw connected to her neck, and he breathed in deep.

There were no lingering traces of Jun’s glamour holding her down. No hints of the saccharine taste of him clouding the blood coursing through her veins. Vernon pressed in deeper, dragging his nose along the curve of her jaw until he met her wide gaze again.  

It was all her.

All human _._

_She wanted to be here_.

Vernon gaped at her, disbelieving. “What’s your name?” he asked, softly. He lifted his hand to the side of her face, the backs of his fingers grazing gently over the soft skin of her cheek.

“Winter,” she said. Not an ounce of fear in her voice as she looked back at him. And this. _This_ , he thought, _makes it all worth it_. This is what he sold his soul for all those years ago. This is what he craved.

_This is what he loved_.

Vernon smiled, his fangs glinting in the firelight as he leaned back in.  

“Beautiful,” he murmured.

 


End file.
